Searching for the neutron electric dipole moment

Guillaume Pignol (LPSC Grenoble, France)

New physics, beyond the Standard Model, is needed to explain how the asymmetry between matter and antimatter was generated in the early Universe.
We aim at revealing and characterizing the new physics in the laboratory by performing precision tests of fundamental symmetries.
The measurement of the electric dipole moment (EDM) fall into this category: if the EDM is found to be nonzero, this would reveal a new interaction which violates the CP symmetry at play inside the neutron.
In the seminar, I will review the motivations to search for the neutron EDM, the history of the measurements (all of the compatible with zero so far), and the challenges we face to improve the precision.
I will give the status of n2EDM, the new experiment being assembled at PSI.
In particular I will report on the measured exceptional magnetic performances of the n2EDM apparatus.